A former Rotherham children’s home worker said brainwashed youngsters would tie bedsheets together and escape from windows into the hands of their attackers

Scandal: A report revealed how at least 1,400 children were sexually exploited

A former Rotherham children’s home worker has told how girls as young as 11 were “brazenly” groomed and abused by paedophiles.

The source said brainwashed youngsters would tie their bedsheets together and escape from windows into the hands of their attackers.

He added he and fellow care workers were even threatened if they tried to chase away the “smirking” sexual predators.

A report this week revealed how at least 1,400 ­children were sexually exploited in Rotherham from 1997 to 2013.

The carer, who worked in homes in the South Yorkshire town for four years from 2003, said men would arrive almost “every night” to collect girls, who were usually driven off in taxis.

He said: “If they [the girls] could leave by the fire escape, they would leave by the fire escape but sometimes, to hide where they were going, they would put bed sheets together and climb out from a window.

“From a second-storey building that is obviously dangerous as well.”

The man, who asked to stay ­anonymous, claimed staff were sometimes reluctant to intervene for fear of being branded “racist” because most of the men were Asian.

He went on: “Sometimes they would phone and they would pick up around the corner, but sometimes they would just turn up and pick up at the children’s home.